The Escapee
by FreeWrite
Summary: Betrayal can come from any direction, a friend, a family member, a lover, a trusted team mate. It didn't take Ian Doyle long to work out who his betrayer was and convincing Jeremy Wolff to turn on his team was easy. He didn't plan on Emily Prentiss being unbreakable and having the BAU to back her up.
1. Chapter 1

Title: The Escapee

Author: Freewrite

Summary: Betrayal can come from any direction, a friend, a family member, a lover, a trusted team mate. It didn't take Ian Doyle long to work out who his betrayer was and convincing Jeremy Wolff to turn on his team was easy. He didn't plan on Emily Prentiss being unbreakable and having the BAU to back her up.

Disclaimer: I don't know any Criminal Minds characters and am not making any money off them.

AN: An AU of the Doyle Arc. Set in season 2 and goes AU from "The Big Game", Reid doesn't get grabbed by Hankel so his kidnap/addiction arc never happens.

I started the bare bones of this story back while I was working on "An Unexpected Life" I've put it away, and pulled it out again so many times I've lost count. At one point I even scrapped massive chunks of it and re-wrote it. I've been cycling between this story, a Stargate/Sanctuary crossover I started back in 2013 and really want to finish and a CM/Harry Potter crossover, then I started binging out on Xena so she and Gabrielle took over my brain for a while. On top of that I've had nowhere near the writing time I did a year ago because of a multi-phase year long project at work.

*****WARNING*** **

This story contains explicit physical and mental torture. Please close now if you do not wish to read. Any flames I receive for this aspect of the story with be used as fuel for my muse!

**PART 1**

Gideon found the package on the windscreen of his car as he left for work the Monday after the team got back from Georgia. Glancing around he saw nothing out of the ordinary.

Tobias Hankel had left a bloody trail in his wake that the team spent 4 long and draining day's chasing. It had only been by sheer luck that JJ and Reid had escaped him in the fields outside his house. None of them wanted to think about what would have happened had he got his hands on one of them.

Hotch had given them all a 3 day weekend to decompress so when the jet landed at close to midnight the Thursday after Superbowl everyone went their separate ways.

Morgan and Reid were heading straight to Dulles to try and get on the next flights to Chicago and Las Vegas, JJ hadn't decided on whether to head to Pennsylvania or not, Garcia had a gaming marathon, Hotch was planning to hibernate with Jack and Haley, he was heading to his cabin and Prentiss... when asked what she was planning to do she'd shrugged and said sleep.

For a moment he thought he saw a flicker of deceit in her eyes but decided it didn't matter, if she didn't want to share what she did in her off time that was fine with him.

Emily had only been with the team two months, she was smart, had a fairly broad skill set and seemed to have a talent for moulding herself into whatever the person in front of her needed at that moment. At the same time there was a deep empathy that oozed from every part of her.

There was no way she came from a desk job in Chicago. Occasionally Gideon thought of calling her out... but several cases in he no longer cared where she came from. Emily Prentiss was an asset to the BAU and had proved she could hold her own both in the field and around the table.

Sliding the package into his bag Gideon drove the 30 minutes to Quantico.

The bullpen was just starting to come to life as he wandered his way through. Reid was at his desk and the light in Hotch's office was on. If everyone stuck to their habits JJ and Prentiss would be in soon and Morgan would slip in at the last possible moment.

Sitting behind his desk Gideon looked at the plain white package, it was small and thin, bubble wrap protecting whatever was inside. The front had his last name scrawled messily on it, there was no postage or return address.

Definitely hand delivered... pulling his letter opener out of the pen holder he slid the blunt blade into the side and split the edge. Tipping the envelope a plain DVD in an unlabelled case clattered down.

Frowning at the lack of further information Gideon didn't even think about it before he pulled a pair of latex gloves on and then opened the case, turned on his computer and loaded the disk.

After a few moments of his computer clicking and whirring a video opened up and started playing.

A face filled the screen, sunken cheeks, angry blue eyes and several day's worth of stubble adorned the mans face.

"Tell Clyde Easter that if he wants his whore back alive he needs to find Louise Jones and send her home."

The man lifted his right wrist to show a tattoo before stepping back revealing the rest of the room.

Concrete walls and floor, a low backed chair and solid wooden table in the background and in the middle of the screen stood a woman. Dark brown hair brushing halfway between neck and shoulder blades, hands shackled behind her back, dressed only in panties and a tank top, shivering and holding herself tense.

He couldn't see her face yet.

The man walked up to the woman who seemed to be alert but not shying away from him until he raised a hand to run a finger down her spine. The man laughed when she jumped violently at the touch twisting away from it just enough for her face to come into view.

Gideon's stomach clenched and heart raced as he saw the unmistakable features of Emily Prentiss.

Smacking the stop button Gideon ejected the disk and ran out of his office and into Hotch's. He didn't look at the empty desk across from Reid...

Not bothering to knock he slammed the door closed behind him before putting the disk into Hotch's computer.

"This was on my car this morning."

He hit pause when Emily's face came into view.

Hotch reached out, picked up his phone and dialled her cell, when it went straight to voicemail he dialed her home number. When it rang out he was up and out of his chair, striding towards the door. Out in the bullpen JJ and Garcia we're chatting to Reid. There was no sign of Emily or Morgan.

"Has anyone heard from Prentiss since Thursday?"

At their negative response he took a deep breath.

"Something's happened to her… JJ call Morgan, tell him to meet you at her place and check it out. Garcia and Reid my office."

"Hotch?" JJ questioned as she went to Emily's desk to get her spare house key.

"Gideon received a video..." He didn't want to say any more... he already knew they wouldn't find her.

In his office Hotch didn't let Garcia or Reid see anything beyond the man's face or the tattoo.

"You two, find out who this is, find Clyde Easter, Louise Jones and what connection they have to Prentiss."

Once they were alone again Hotch looked at Gideon.

"I need to brief Strauss…" Hotch grimaced as he picked up his phone and called the section chief to brief her. Gideon didn't need to hear it all to know it was an unpleasant conversation.

"Now we need to watch all the way through..."

"I know..." Gideon's hand hovered over the play button "The rest of the team... we keep this from them as long as possible."

Hotch nodded his agreement as Gideon pressed play.

After watching her flinch away from the first touch the man stepped away and waited nearly 20 seconds before approaching her again. This time he ran a finger down her sternum smiling as she flinched again, he stepped back and waited nearly a minute. The only sound was their breathing and his light footsteps.

The third touch wasn't gentle, the slap to her backside eliciting a gasp.

"She can't see him..." Gideon murmured as the man waited directly in front of an unresponsive Emily.

"Or hear him..." Hotch agreed, neither of them knowing how Emily's captor had managed to restrict her sight and hearing without visible equipment or damage.

For the next ten minutes the touches ranged from gentle strokes to rough grabs, hard slaps and once a back hand to the face. The time in between each varying keeping her off balance.

"She's not panicking either, she's tense and scared but she's controlled."

Hotch wanted to look away as the man seemed to have tired of the game, pulled her back to his chest and turned so they were facing the camera. One hand held her flush against him while the other came up to cup her breast, lightly massaging it. Gideon was surprised when she relaxed into the touch which softened the man's grip on her giving Emily enough leeway to throw her head back into his face, bloodying his nose.

Pulling her body away from him she stood still and waited for him to retaliate.

"Did you really think I wouldn't recognise your hands or your stench? Come on Ian... you may as well kill me now cause I'll never give you what you want." Emily Prentiss called out, her voice trembling, Gideon couldn't tell if it was from fear or the cold. A part of him hoped it was fear, the cold would kill her quicker than fearfulness.

Hotch's hand shot out to his desk phone as Gideon hit pause.

"We've got a first name... Ian… let Morgan and JJ know." Hotch didn't let Garcia ask any questions before he hung up the phone and Gideon hit play again.

"Put her in the chair" The man... Ian... growled as he pinched his nose to stem the blood flow.

Two more men appeared from behind the camera, and grab Emily by the biceps dragging her backwards into the chair. Her hands were released long enough to be shackled to the table top. Turning to face the camera Ian gestured for whoever was controlling it to move close to Emily.

The camera was moved to behind so Emily's back was to it… the screen went blank for a moment and when the picture came back the light was slightly different… Emily's back was bare, her tank having been pulled up and over her head and her hair pushed aside. The width and breadth of her back had the same pattern as Ian's wrist drawn on it.

"I'll start nice and easy shall I?" he twirled a scalpel in his fingers and placed it against Emily's skin pushing through the top few layers of pale skin. Bright red blood immediately welled out and started to run down the pale back. Emily barely flinched, her breathing didn't speed up… in fact she seemed to relax even more… Gideon suspected she was letting herself drift away to a place only she could get to, he hoped so and he hoped she could stay there long enough to be rescued.

Whoever trained Emily Prentiss had done a damn good job.

"I told you the whore has no feelings Liam!" Ian crowed as he finished the first leaf without Emily making a sound.

Gideon hit pause and rubbed a hand over his face.

"That's the second time he's called her a whore… she knows his name and he's made sure he can be identified."

Hotch nodded and looked down at the notes he had taken without thinking about it. "And I think we can both agree she was never riding a desk in the midwest."

A gentle knock at the door interrupted before Gideon could answer.

"Sir's…" Garcia poked her head in with her eyes closed not wanting to see what was happening to Emily.

"Come in Garcia, it's paused and turned away."

"So Ian is Ian Doyle former Provisional IRA, former weapons dealer who was arrested by the Italian Police and handed over to Interpol a year ago. I can try and see where he went from there but it would take… something that someone might be a little unhappy about." She paused waiting for them to respond.

"Let's hold off on that for now" Hotch instructed.

"Ok… Louise Jones was Doyles housekeeper. No arrests, she dropped off the grid with her four year old son Declan after Doyle was arrested. I haven't been able to find her yet, I've sent what little I've been able to find to you. Finally Clyde Easter works for SIS… that's all I've got unless once again I do a little something…"

"Anything connecting them to Prentiss?" Gideon looked over the file on Doyle she handed over.

"Not officially…" the tech analyst hedged and continued when both men raised their eyebrows "There's something hinkey about Emily's file. It's too… smooth."

"Smooth like Prentiss never did anything wrong or smooth like it was fabricated?" Gideon watched carefully as Garcia's hands fluttered slightly and her eyes darted stressfully around the room. Both he and Hotch gone through the file with a fine tooth comb and come to the same conclusion. There was nothing specific in there that would raise red flags, it matched exactly what Emily told them but it didn't quite match the woman they were slowly getting to know.

"It's only been a couple of months but… Emily's not the type to sit down and shut up if you get my meaning. I mean the woman makes Sir sound like an insult, surely one of her supervisors would have noticed this before now."

"Thanks Garcia, keep looking for Louise Jones."

Once the tech was out of the room Gideon looked at Hotch and they nodded to each other in agreement to continue.

Pressing play again a second voice came through the speaker.

"She's drifting Ian… if you want to hear her scream you need to break it first…"

"We keep this up long enough she won't be able to hold it and she'll scream anyway"

'No she won't' Gideon thought 'she's too calm… too centered… she's been here before she knows what to expect.'

The second leaf of the clover was completed when Morgan's call came through.

"Hotch man, Prentiss isn't here. The alarm was off and we found an empty syringe in the kitchen and pictures of Prentiss with the word whore written on them strewn everywhere. I've called in the techs to go over the place. Finally there was a guy banging on her door when we got here… claims to be an old friend visiting from London."

"What's his name?"

"Sean McAlister, has an Interpol ID that looks legit"

"Tell him Prentiss was last seen by us Thursday night, we've received a video with demands, then show him the picture of the Unsub."

Hotch and Gideon listened carefully as the information was passed on.

"FUCK!"

"He's calling someone" Morgan murmured before putting his phone on speaker. Muted but understandable

"We're too late, Liam must have snatched her just before Doyle escaped, how the fuck did they know where to find her… Meet me in Quantico and I'll brief them… Fuck classified… it was my case and I'm reading them in… what do you mean Jeremy is missing too… who saw him last… you tell Tsia to get her arse on a plane now…"

The could hear a heaving breath over the line but not much more for several seconds after the phone call ended.

"I need to talk to your bosses."

"JJ" Hotch called through the phone "Bring Agent McAlister back to Quantico, Morgan wait for the crime techs, we'll keep you updated"

Hotch hung up the phone and blew out a breath his eyes trailing back to the frozen video, reaching over Gideon and pressing play.

"Look at her right thumb." Gideon pointed out after several minutes of the only noise coming from the video.

It took a moment for Hotch to see it. The movement was too small to be considered a tap, it was more like Emily was pushing it into the table. After several seconds of watching he realised it was in time with a pulse. Maybe even her own resting heart rate.

"A way to keep her focus off the pain."

"Drop her conscious mind into another place, drift off somewhere she can't be reached… that no one knows about. A garden or a beach, maybe even a mountain side. Somewhere she's safe." Gideon thought back to some of the techniques he'd heard agents were trained with should they be compromised.

"The question is can she stay there long enough to be rescued?" Hotch flashed back to Hankles bathroom.

'_I guess… I compartmentalise better than most'_

The video flickered in and out skipping time so it was only a matter of 30 second or so before the entirety of Emily's back was a blood covered mess. Doyle hadn't just sliced into her skin but cut a centimeter wide furrow.

The thumb tap was slightly faster and a little more erratic but still going…wherever Emily had gone she was still there.

"Salt the wound…" Ian snarled as whoever was holding the camera moved around so Emily's face was filling the screen.

Another man appeared with a jug full of cloudy water. Gideon could only assume it was heavily salted. Standing he slowly tipped the water over her.

Emily screamed as the screen went black.

**END PART 1**


	2. Chapter 2

**PART 2**

With a gasp Hotch hit the pause button.

It wasn't the first time he'd heard that sound come from another human being and it wouldn't be the last but hearing it from someone he knew was different. The victims he'd listened to in the past had been pieces of paper, statistics on a board. While he didn't yet have an emotional attachment to Emily Prentiss, he knew her in a way he didn't know other victims. He knew how she liked her coffee, the subtle scent of her perfume and shampoo, the way her fingers would move restlessly when deep in thought and the unconscious drawing of her bottom lip between teeth when weighing her options. The same way she would know his preferred aftershave and coffee and what the dent between his eyebrows meant. The way only a profiler could get to know someone. Quietly… through observation.

When he closed his eyes her guarded face flashed to the fore.

'_She's right, you've never even blinked'_

"That's…" Hotch couldn't look at Gideon.

"A lot…" Gideon paused and gathered his thoughts "The good news is he's not trying to kill her…"

Neither of them voiced the question of just how much she could take.

A knock at the door stopped Hotch from responding. When he called them in, it opened to reveal JJ with a heavy built man with dark hair.

"JJ go and help Garcia and Reid track down Louise Jones." The blonde nodded and left the room, closing the door behind her.

"Agent McAlister, I understand you're going to explain what an Irish weapons dealer wants with a profiler who's spent most of the last decade behind a desk in the midwest?" Gideon sat back and allowed Hotch to do the talking so he could watch the Scotsman.

"Agent's Gideon and Hotchner, neither of you are stupid enough to still believe that. The CIA faked her personal file with the Bureau. She wanted out… Clyde and I made sure it said the exact right thing for her to get whatever assignment she wanted."

"We theorised as much. Clyde? As in Clyde Easter?"

"Aye, he's on a flight from London and should be here in a few hours. He was Em's team leader in JTF-12… CIA, SIS, DCRI and BND… best and brightest, profilers chasing terrorists after 9/11. I was trying to get an Arms Dealer, Valhalla… brought them in much like local police do with your BAU. They found him, infiltrated his organisation and got us everything we needed to put him away… Em got out after that. Said it got too grey and dirty, I believe her exact words 'I want to be able to make a case without screwing someone'… three nights ago Doyle escaped custody… still not sure how and no one notified Clyde or me until yesterday."

"You came straight here to warn her?" Hotch was mildly surprised by the genuine fear he was seeing.

"Aye, she spent 8 months undercover as an Arms Dealer. Everything we have on Doyle is because of her… we killed her cover… there are maybe 10 people in the world who know the details and if Doyle has her then it'll be fairly easy to trace who his inside man is." Sean took a deep breath "Are you sure it's him?

Gideon wrote down the time code and restarted the DVD. He doesn't watch the video instead keeps keen eyes on McAlister. He knows the minute Emily's face comes into view as tears spring to the other man's eyes.

"She was out" Sean whispered "She was safe… I redacted everything myself… only our team knew she was here in DC…"

There was nothing Hotch or Gideon could say to that.

Gideon watched as McAlister took a deep breath and centred himself.

"From what we've seen so far Emily knows who has her and what he wants." Hotch fast forwarded the video to the moment where Emily identified her captor "Why would he go to all of this trouble for a housekeeper?"

"He wouldn't" Sean confirmed "unless Louise knows or has something he's desperate to get his hands on."

"Emily knows what it is and where it is and she may have even kept it out of her report. What would make her do that and how long before she breaks?" Hotch's voice hitches at the thought of her breaking.

"Emily's solid. There's very little she'd keep from the official reports. It has to be something… that wouldn't impact the case. Clyde…" Sean swallowed hard "Clyde's known her the longest. They've worked on several different OPS over the years. If anyone knows it'll be him… they used to joke about Emily and Clyde being the old married couple on the team… those old OPS… I don't know what happened during them but those two can almost read each other's minds. It's a sight to see them in the field together."

Hotch let his mind wander back to Emily's interactions with Jane. The Agent had shown a patience and empathy with the damaged woman that surprised them. While passionate and empathetic there was also a calculating coldness to Emily Prentiss that came out when they were discussing take down options.

"_Now if you don't mind, I'd like to get back out there and find out who is killing these women… Sir!"_

"How deep was she?" Gideon asked.

"Deep enough that Doyle fancied himself in love with her… not deep enough to lose herself." Sean admitted uncomfortably.

"That tracks with the anger we've seen so far" Gideon let his eyes close in realisation "His anger is that of a betrayed lover not business partner or rival…" it wasn't a question, Sean's comment about Emily wanting out had planted the seed.

Sean nodded and took a deep breath "Right… what do you need me to do?"

* * *

The three men looked up at the knock on the door, with Sean's help they'd managed to identify four of the men in the video.

"Come in" Hotch called as he made sure the screen wasn't viewable from the door.

"Sir" Garcia entered the office "We think Louise Jones is here in the states. She and Declan flew into Boston Logan 8 weeks after Doyles arrest, they've since dropped off the grid..." her gaze flickered to Sean unsure if she should say the next part in front of him.

"Also Sir's Reid noticed something..." she placed the most recent photo of Declan on the desk "he asked me to age Declan's photo and I didn't really understand why at first but then when I did it... well I'll let you see for yourself."

She placed the print out of Declan aged 35 and then one of Doyle the same age.

"We're pretty sure Declan is Doyle's son"

"Holy shit..." Sean murmured taking in the side by side and connecting the dates "Em mentioned meeting the housekeepers boy… said she enjoyed playing with him and she came back to the states two days before them. Clyde once said Emily would do anything to protect a child… this she would lie about."

"It make people distrustful and damages people" Hotch murmured "Protecting a child from the fall out."

"If this is correct then the boy is what Doyle is really after. Emily knows Declan's true identity as well as his location…" Gideon stared off into the distance "We find the housekeeper and the boy, we find Emily."

Garcia nodded and turned on her heel and started to leave the office

"Garcia..." Hotch called causing the blonde to stop and look over her shoulder "Start in Reston and its surrounds, look at school enrollments for Kindergarten, don't worry about hair colour, blue eyed boys, first name Declan."

"She'd want to be close enough to keep an eye on them but far enough away to ensure they don't cross paths accidentally." Gideon confirmed, his brain had been going over every interaction with Emily over the last two months, trying to work out what was the truth and what was a lie. He'd come to the conclusion that her smiles were real as was her laughter and the friendship she'd offered and accepted. Other than that she hadn't revealed enough of herself to be telling lies beyond the backstop she'd been given. He suspected even if it had been years the same would be true. If what he'd seen so far was true she would simply avoid subjects where she would be required to lie.

The tech analyst left the room and the three men turned back to the screen and pressed play again.

* * *

They'd made it through everything Hotch and Gideon had already seen and they'd all noted that time was skipping through. There were frequent jumps and changes in perspective making it nearly impossible to work out how much time had passed for Emily.

"I told you I'd make sure he was safe…" she was nearly sobbing as Ian held tightly to her left middle finger running the tip of a needle along the ridge of her bitten down finger nail. "And he is… he's safe from everyone, including you"

Emily had to have known what's Ian's response to her declaration was as while she groaned in pain there was no surprise on her face when he shoved the needle into the soft skin underneath what was left of her blunt nail.

Her breaths came hard and fast as Ian picked up the scalpel again.

"We don't negotiate with terrorists…" Emily gasped "and if you think there's anyone in this world who gives a flying fuck about what happens to me…"

Ian pushed the blade into the skin of her left ring knuckle and pulled it towards him slicing her finger open to the nail.

"You're wrong" Emily continued, her breaths coming faster as she attempted to push through the pain "Even if they could find him they wouldn't trade him for me…"

Sean leaned around Gideon and hit pause.

"I have a theory?" he paused for a moment to make sure his thoughts were in order "Doyle has to know she won't give Declan up. He knows that neither the US Government nor Interpol will negotiate with him so what's the point of this video?" both Gideon and Hotch caught his train of thought "It's to get us looking for Declan and Louise. Emily hid them away and won't tell him where they are so he grabs her, gives us enough information to start looking, I'm betting there are tails waiting to follow us to wherever we track them down to. He then grabs them in transit and disappears with the boy after dumping Emily and Louise's bodies for us to find."

"He wants to use our SOP against us." Gideon agrees. "Our teams will be watched so we can't use them, we'll need another way to get them to safety once we locate them."

"Here's another question…" Hotch spoke up after a moment of silence "Would Emily leave them unprotected? We know she wouldn't risk them by being too close but there will be someone who is watching them on her behalf." he reached out and picked up the phone to dial Garcia.

"Garcia… we need to to get into Prentiss' private phone and email. She'll be communicating with someone sporadically, getting updates on Declan and Louise…" he paused at the look Gideon was giving him.

"You probably won't find anything there" Gideon sighed "Prentiss won't have left an obvious trail between them but Morgan might find something in her condo that will help."

The phone was hung up and they turned back to the video.

* * *

"Hotch…" Morgan bit his lip as practiced eyes took in the living area "I'm telling you there is nothing personal about this condo. The furniture and appliances are brand new, there are no books or DVD's, the television isn't even plugged in. There's a single suitcase full of clothes and no personal photos, there's a couple of prints on the walls but it's all cheap generic stuff you get when you want nice artwork but can't afford nice artwork..."

"In other words it's a carefully constructed facade, chances are she has another place under a pseudonym and uses that condo as a pit stop in between." Gideon sighed heavily. "I think we need to test Sean's theory. Morgan come back to Quantico."

6 hours since he'd slipped the DVD into his computer.

They'd watched it through twice and had finally given in and sent it down to Garcia for her technical analysis, with a list of things they wanted enhanced.

The blonde had locked JJ and Reid out of her office while she did this.

With Sean's help they were profiling Doyle, Emily and the rest of JTF-12.

Unknown to him Gideon and Hotch were also profiling the Scotsman. If he was the mole that helped Doyle escape and gave away Emily's location what better way to cover his tracks than to be the first on her doorstep to warn her.

A phone beeped in someone's pocket stopping the discussion of the true relationship between Emily and Clyde. It took Sean a few seconds to check the message that had come through.

"Clyde's landing in 30 minutes" he informed the other four "Jeremy was fished out of the Rhone 10 kilometers south of Lyon last night. He'd been in there at least 48 hours and was killed by a bullet in the back of the head." on his tiredest day Gideon didn't believe he'd ever felt as bad as Sean looked right at this moment. "Tsia's in the air and will be here by midnight. The recordings of Doyle's interrogations should be in your inboxes any minute."

"Reid!" Hotch got the young Doctor's attention "You and Morgan go through the tapes he should be back any minute. JJ keep looking for that connection, someone in Emily's past she knows well enough to trust with Declan and Louise but removed enough to not be a consideration."

"Actually…" JJ highlighted a name "Tom Kohler was at Gar-Field High with Emily, they get together for dinner every New Years Day and have only missed a handful since graduating, including this one just gone. He works for the State Department and not 12 months ago bought a really nice 4 bedroom house out in Reston. For a single man with no children who travels a lot…"

"It's a blip." Hotch agreed "Get me his contact details."

When the number dropped through to his phone he went back up to his office to make the call in private and scowled when it went straight through to voicemail. While the message was playing he tried to come up with a good reason for calling.

"This is SSA Aaron Hotchner of the FBI. I need to speak with Tom Kohler, I believe he may have information regarding a cold case of ours. Please call me on 555 201 0273 as soon as possible."

* * *

Clyde Easter, Gideon decided was an arsehole. Admitedly he was an arsehole who cared a great deal about Emily Prentiss but still.

He had left Hotch and Sean to fill Clyde in on the contents of the video, instead sitting back to study the Brit.

"She can take it." Clyde glared at everyone in the room "Do not make the mistake of treating her like a china doll that needs to be coddled. She will kick you in the balls..." Clyde's hand came up to rub the bridge of his nose "and then break your nose"

"I'm guessing you know this from personal experience?" Gideon finally spoke, staring up at the Brit placidly.

"The first time I met Emily Prentiss was in 1996 during her first major undercover op. A human trafficking ring was taking western girls into Iran for sale throughout the middle east, girls in their late teens and early 20's grabbed from nightclubs throughout Europe. Emily got herself grabbed at a rave in Odesa and I was working the other end, had managed to get myself the job of teaching the girls basic Arabic, neither of our agencies had bothered to confirm if anyone else was running an op. The things she had to do to survive... she didn't once break cover... when Interpol broke up the ring she and I 'escaped' and joined up with Mujrim Almawt (The bringer of death) who we used to get a foothold into the arms market. The CIA and the SIS agreed to the joint operation." he sucked in his breath through his nose "if you think Ian Doyle has a hope in hell of breaking her then you're a fool."

"He's cut off two of her senses" Gideon's voice was low and emotionless "she's tied up, he's gouged a four leaf clover into her back and salted the wound, he's flayed the skin off her left ring finger and shoved needles under the nails of two others and when the video ended he was yelling for a car battery and you're telling me she can take it. You're telling me she'll come through this with a semblance of self intact, able to be in the dark, able to cope with silence?"

"Yes" Clyde refused to accept anything less "You think this is the first time she's been captured and tortured? Do you think this is the first time a man has used pain to try and break her, it's not. They haven't even started on sexual torture yet… she won't break… she'll die first."

"She's been tortured before…" Hotch's voice is toneless as his eyes flicker briefly to Gideon's.

"Yes." Clyde turned to stare out the window, unable to face these men who couldn't possibly understand the absolute faith he had in Emily Prentiss surviving anything and everything the world threw at her.

"You were there…" Hotch continued finally getting why Clyde was so sure "After Almawt you two struck out on your own and encroached on someone's territory… I'm guessing the two of you were grabbed and they tortured her to get you to cooperate."

"Yes…" Clyde paused and shivered as the memories washed over him "They had us for 20 days… they started with the psychological, sleep deprivation, and the cold… kept the temperature low enough to be uncomfortable without causing hypothermia and then once she started hallucinating from lack of food and sleep they started on the physical torture… they started small… ripped every single nail out of her hands and feet, used a mini ball peen hammer to fracture but not outright break the bones in her left ankle. She has nerve damage in her feet, she never told me what from. Then when none of that worked they took turns raping her… she didn't break…" Clyde's nostrils flared as her screams filled his head. "I know she didn't break because I was there… locked in in the cell beside her and I heard every single moment of it... every single scream." he blinked a few times and then turned back to face the room.

"When we missed our second check in they came looking for us. We were eventually rescued… so when I tell you she can take whatever that monster throws at her..."

"She can take it" Hotch repeated.

The room dropped into an oppressive silence as Sean, Hotch and Gideon added that to their mental profile of the woman they were looking for.

"So what are you doing to rescue her?" Clyde finally spoke again.

"Sitting half a mile down the road are two cars containing men we've identified on the tape. If we're right they're waiting for us to go out and get Declan and Louise. We believe their orders are to follow and intercept once we have them after that they'll be taken to Doyle. We're currently getting two safe houses set up with decoy's so we can arrest them when they try for the snatch. We're going to parade whoever we arrest past the ones remaining. One of two things will happen after that. They'll hightail it back to where ever Doyle and Prentiss are… with us following or they'll call Doyle not knowing we've already got a trap and trace on their phones and will be able to use them to find Doyle anyway."

"That sounds exactly like the kind of plan Doyle would put together." Clyde nodded as he ran scenarios through his head. "Can I suggest you send me with the team to the safe houses. They may be watching for me, Tsia or Sean and will therefore be more likely to follow the vehicle if one of us are in it."

Gideon and Hotch locked gazes for a minute.

"Agreed" Gideon nodded just as Hotch's phone rang in his pocket.

"Excuse me…" he stepped out of the room and answered as he strode towards his office.

"Hotchner…"

"Agent Hotchner, this is Tom Kohler returning your call." A masculine voice rumbled over the other end.

"Mr Kohler, thank you for calling me back." Hotch took a deep breath "When was the last time you spoke with Emily Prentiss?"

There was a telling pause on the other end. "It's been over a year" the other man admitted.

"Please just answer yes or no to this next question" Hotch and Gideon had debated on how to handle this part "The last time you saw her did she ask you to look after anything for her?"

Tom's breath hitched giving Hotch all the confirmation he needed "I'm guessing she also filled you in on why they needed hiding?"

"Yeah…" Tom's voice was weak.

"Emily has been compromised. Can all of you get to the Baltimore Field Office?"

"Yes."

"Go there and ask for SSA Josh Cramer. He'll make sure you're protected and won't tell anyone, even me where you are."

Then they waited, Clyde watched the video and the other three watched Clyde.

It was close to three hours later that Hotch received two calls within minutes of each other.

The first from Agent Cramer confirming Tom, Louise and Declan were with him at the field office.

The second confirming the safe houses and undercover agents were set up and ready to go. Hotch sent Morgan and JJ with Clyde and as they watched the elevator doors close on the 3 he turned to Gideon and murmured.

"Easter is hiding something."

"But McAlister isn't"

Time seemed to slow after that… they were in constant contact with the others but it didn't make the waiting any easier.

Finally word came back that their plan worked like a charm. One car had stayed and the other had followed, attempted an ambush and been arrested.

Not 30 seconds after they were paraded past the second car Garcia's excited voice echoed over the team. A call was being made, it was picked up and they all held their breath as the trace started to work and close in on their location.

5 seconds… 10… 20…. 25... 30 seconds and the marker settled on a section of Accokeek Creek 20 minutes south of Quantico.

The address had a big farmhouse abandoned and old.

And hopefully inside it was their team mate.

* * *

Gideon was the fourth person through the door of the storm cellar to see Emily Prentiss still shackled to the table, face locked in a grimace and head cocked towards them.

He would find out later she'd felt the vibrations of their boots on the floor and the change in the air when the door opened.

He holstered his gun as the SWAT team cleared the room and rushed up to her.

Knowing the only two senses she could rely on were scent and touch he leaned up close enough for her to hopefully realise by his smell he wasn't one of her captors and lifted a hand to trace out a letter on her cheek.

"G" her voice was barely audible as she sounded out every letter.

"i"

"d"

"e"

"o"

"n"

"Gideon?"

He gently traced a 'Y' on her cheek. Her head dropped and all of the residual fight left her body as another pained sob echoed through the room.

She flinched when one of the SWAT officers undid her legs, he stepped close enough to wrap his arms around her as they worked on her hands. Once they were no longer in place they slid the chair away from the table and her entire body weight slumped down onto him, he let them slide gently to the floor, she clenched her jaw against the agony the change in position caused. JJ knelt down next to them with a blanket which she draped over Emily's front.

The brunette flinched again at the second pair of hands, copying Gideon the media liaison traced out two J's.

"JJ"

Tucking her filthy hair behind her ear Gideon checked the ear canal to see if there was a quick way to remove whatever was obstructing it to allow her to at least hear what was going on. He could see what looked like a set of noise reduction plugs sealed over with a clear adhesive stopping him from removing them.

Placing a finger on her chin he turned her face toward him to check her eyes, the were red and irritated but he couldn't see anything to wrong enough to stop her from being able to see.

"Contacts" she rasped finally understanding what he was doing "I can feel them in there." Now that he was close enough he could see instead of their natural dark brown her eyes were solid black.

At the door two paramedic's were let through with a stretcher. One knelt next to JJ and reached out to Emily only to be stopped by Gideon before he could make contact.

"Wait..." he instructed, patiently spelling out 'medic' for Emily letting her know what was happening.

"You'll stay with me?" she asked in a trembling voice he never thought to hear come from Emily Prentiss. Holding her bloody hand up to his own face Gideon nodded, JJ again copied his action.

"I didn't break" she promised "I didn't… but I might need a couple a days off… I'm kinda tired" she didn't fight the paramedic as he slid an oxygen mask over her face and while the other searched for a usable vein.

"Good luck… I'm pretty dehydrated… haven't even peed in a while…" she could tell what the fingers were probing for on the back of her hand.

"Hey Gideon… I'm gonna have a nap now…?" she didn't even wait for a response before passing out.

She missed the paramedic finally finding a vein, Hotch, Morgan and Reid making their way into the room with Clyde and Sean and taking in where her blood had pooled and congealed for several days. The worried glances and utterances of her dangerously high body temperature in the cold basement room.

There were too many injuries to tell where the infection was.

It didn't take them long to get Emily strapped to the gurney.

"Ride with her…" Gideon instructed JJ "She does not leave your sight. If she goes to X-Ray you go to X-Ray, if she goes to surgery you scrub in. As of this moment she is in protective custody and must be in sight of an FBI Agent until I say otherwise."

With over half his men dead and what they hoped was the rest in custody along with Doyle the danger to Emily was minimal but Gideon and Hotch didn't want to take any chances.

In the background Hotch was on the phone to Bethesda warning them an agent was being brought in and her protective detail was to be in the same room as her at all times.

Following the gurney with an unconscious Emily, JJ climbed into the ambulance absently noting Clyde stopping one of the paramedics and whispering something in her ear, the blonde tried to make herself as small as possible in the corner as the paramedic worked.

She listened as they rattled Emily's stats over the radio to the waiting ER doctors, pulse was thready and erratic along with a dangerously low BP and incredibly high body temperature.

Despite several hospitals being closer none could match the security that Bethesda offered. When they finally pulled in nearly an hour later JJ trailed behind the gurney as they rushed Emily to one of the treatment rooms and tucked herself into a corner.

JJ watched as they cleansed the already healing but infected wound in Emily's back and fought back the tears when the pattern became clear.

From what she caught of the chatter from the Doctors and Nurses, by themselves, none of Emily's injuries were life threatening. When they confirmed she had quickly stablised once they started re-hydrating her the specialists started to trail in… an opthamologist to remove the contacts, an ENT specialist to remove the earbuds and on it went. Through the whole thing Emily remained blissfully unconscious, JJ caught on they weren't too worried about it at this point. Between the exhaustion, dehydration, injuries and painkillers it was better for her to not be awake.

**END PART 2**


	3. Chapter 3

**PART 3**

The sun was rising as Clyde slipped through the door of Emily's hospital room. JJ was seated in a chair off in the corner, tired eyes watching Emily sleep. The rest of the team was still cleaning up the farmhouse or interrogating Doyle.

JJ had followed Gideon's instructions to the letter and she couldn't wait to go home, have a hot bubble bath with a glass of wine, a good cry and some sleep.

"She hasn't woken up yet." JJ told him quietly "The Doctor's said she's just sleeping, which is the best thing for her right now."

"They've charged him under your patriot act. They found a stash of weapons ready for sale." he lowered his tired and aching body into the other chair.

"Reid called me…" JJ murmured. "The opthamologist gave her the all clear, her eyes will be sensitive for a few days but no long term problems, but they're worried the damage to her ears is permanent. He use the disposable construction type plugs and super glue to keep them in place. It'll be a couple of weeks before they know for sure if they'll heal."

"Won't be the first time, bombing in Yemen caused our ears to ring for weeks" Clyde didn't even realise he was talking out loud and missed the astonished widening of JJ's eyes.

Leaning forward with his elbows on his knees Clyde studied his old friend "You, Emily Prentiss have more lives than a room full of cats."

* * *

The first time Emily woke the room was dark and quiet. Garcia had arrived sometime since Clyde had left and was sitting knitting with JJ's feet in her lap while the media liaison napped.

Not that Emily would be able to tell you exactly who it was. She could vaguely make out two feminine shapes and light coloured hair. Breathing in deeply through her nose she caught a whiff of coffee mixed with Bulgari and Dolce and Gabbana perfume, the combination of scents that followed the two whenever they were together reassured her that she was safe.

Enveloped in the warmth of the blankets and comfort of the bed Emily made no attempt to move or get anyone's attention until the dryness of her mouth forced her to look around for a drink. The slight rustling as she shuffled to get a look around caught Garcia's attention. Placing her knitting down the analyst gently lifted JJ's feet and stood placing them back down and stepping up to the bedside.

"Hey Emily…" She could just make out the bright red lips moving but there was no sound to go with it.

Letting her eyes drift closed and then open again Emily licked her chapped lips with a dry tongue.

"Water?" she barely rasped out.

After a few moments of fumbling a straw was place at her lips and she gratefully sipped at the tepid liquid.

Exhausted by the effort, Emily released the straw and let her eyes drift close and sleep take her back over.

* * *

The second time she woke the world wasn't quite as fuzzy. As she glanced around the room this time the two blondes were gone and replaced by a single man seated close enough to the door to use the scant light to work on what she assumed was a crossword puzzle.

Emily could just make out the planes of his face identifying him as Gideon.

"Hey…" she managed to scratch out getting his attention. He was immediately on his feet bringing the straw to her lips.

Like earlier she sipped gently at the water, the IV she could feel in her forearm would take care of the dehydration but do nothing to combat the dead rodent feel of her mouth until she was allowed upright and to brush her teeth. In the meantime water would have to do.

"20 questions?" she rasped and was relieved when Gideon nodded, immediately understanding her meaning.

"Did you arrest Doyle?"

Nod.

"Did he get his hands on anyone else."

Shake and utter relief. Declan was safe.

"Will my eyesight return to normal?"

Nod.

"My hearing?"

He hesitated…

"Only time will tell… not the first time a Doctor has said that to me…" her resignation was written all over her face.

Gideon nodded.

"Scale of 1 to 10, how bad is my back going to scar?"

Gideon thinks back to what he saw on the video and what he'd overheard the doctor's saying and holds up 7 fingers.

Emily winces and wonders if her insurance will cover cosmetic surgery… and if it doesn't does she have enough stashed away to pay for it herself.

She wished she could make out his features better and get a read on him.

"Are you and Hotch going to want my full skill set and background?"

He huffs out a brief laugh and nods.

"Too bad… all the really cool stories are classified above your paygrade." a yawn breaks through the smirk she throws at him "but I can give you the basics."

Gideon wonders how much pain and trauma the smart ass persona is covering up.

The last 48 hours has shown him just how easily a profile can be skewed by the right performance.

"_Oooh, show me!"_

Emily Prentiss has been slipping in and out of skins for a decade. He could imagine months of training at the farm.

"_I can see your heart rate rising Prentiss…"_

That impeccable control she has… possibly had.

It would be weeks before the physical effects of exhaustion, dehydration and blood loss wore off enough for her mental state to be assessed. Even then it may not be accurate, Emily was a good enough operative to survive months under cover, possibly even years if what he had gleaned from Easter is correct.

It wouldn't be hard for her to put on a spectacular show for the Bureau shrinks.

As talented as Reid was, he didn't yet have the maturity and experience to crack through the wall Emily would throw up to protect herself. Morgan would be too distrustful of her, it would take months before he was willing to see anything she said as the truth.

It may be months before she's even willing to speak the truth.

"I'd forgotten how weird it feels to speak with damaged hearing…" she muses as her eyes slide shut.

Gideon eases himself back into the chair as her face relaxes into sleep. In another few hours Hotch would be here to relieve him followed by Morgan then Reid the back to Garcia and JJ.

He's startled when she spoke not 10 minutes later.

"We moved to Beirut when I was 11…" Gideon turned his head to see her eyes crack open "Yeah… my amazing mother took her pre-teen daughter to a country in the middle of a civil war"

"_I lived in several middle eastern countries growing up"_

"I was 13 the first time my hearing was damaged… we lived near the barracks and I was home when they were bombed… it was 3 days before my ears stopped ringing and another week before full hearing was restored…" she heaved a sigh as Gideon wondered how much her mother was responsible for Emily's ability to slip in and out of anothers skin.

"The second time was freshman year in college… my idiot boyfriend fired a shotgun too close to my head. A month later it was finally back to normal… Then 5 years ago Clyde and I were caught on the edge of another bombing in Yemen… That was 2 months of recovery…"

'I wonder if this will be it for her…' Gideon was glad she couldn't see his face.

"I'm wondering if this will be it for my ears… the agency doctor warned me the damage was cumulative… how long before it's permanent….?"

She turned her face away from him and knew if the damage didn't heal she'd disappear and they'd never see her again.

Maine, maybe Vermont or New Hampshire. Quiet, sparsely populated she could easily slip into a town and quickly work out where she would best fit in.

What type of story would she tell, would she stick to a watered down version of the truth that could be tracked by the right person, would she be a recognisable version of Emily Prentiss or would she go the opposite completely shed her former self and build anew.

* * *

The doctor's discharged her long before any of them thought it was a good idea.

Unfortunately none of them had medical proxy or even knew where her real condo was. So five days after her rescue Emily was out of hospital and had hidden herself away. Without being prompted Garcia flagged her bank accounts and credit cards but Gideon knew they wouldn't get a hit. Emily had spent too long in the agency and was too practiced at flying under the radar to be found so easily.

The team hoped Emily would contact them soon.

Gideon knew she was off rebuilding her walls, and reorganising those little compartments in her head.

When he let himself back into his office the night they returned from Connecticut he almost gasped in surprise to see her sitting on his couch. It had been two weeks since she was discharged and it showed. She had slightly more colour in her cheeks, and didn't flinch at the sudden burst of light. Her left hand was still bandaged and splinted and she still didn't sit all the way back but she looked much healthier than the last time he saw her.

"You've had us worried." he comments, sitting next to her.

"I know." she doesn't apologise "I needed to look after myself first and it was too stressful trying to communicate while my ears healed. I'm back at 60% now so..."

He knows she's not telling him everything, but is relieved when she hands him a piece of paper.

"My address and cell phone, just in case." Gideon doesn't need to ask if it's real, the look in her eye tells him the truth.

"I've just had my first session with psych. It was pretty light but it'll get harder and before I put too much effort into it I need to know if the team will accept me back" Emily finally raises her eyes to meet his and Gideon sees something he didn't expect. Fear…

"Here's the thing…" Emily continues before Gideon can say anything "I really like this place. I like the work and I like the people and for the first time in an incredibly long time I feel like this is somewhere I can belong but if the team won't accept me now they know about my past then I'll walk away and try to find somewhere else." He's astonished at the brutal honesty and knows she deserves something in return.

"Morgan is struggling, mainly because he didn't pick up any dishonesty from you and his ego has taken a hit. Reid will be ok once he gets a chance to talk everything through and so will JJ and Garcia. Hotch claims he's ok with it but he's struggling to reconcile what we saw Doyle do to you with working with you. If you prove you're ok back in the field he'll be fine. As for me…" he smiled gently "I think back over the last few months and I wonder if we're seeing the real Emily. The Emily no one has had an opportunity to see in a very long time."

"It was such a relief to just be me again." Emily admits.

"You keep being you and we'll be fine." he squeezes her uninjured hand gently.

Emily's cleared by psych before medical. Gideon is the only one not surprised, Emily Prentiss is the type of woman who once she decides she wants something she'll work until she gets there. Hotch is suspicious of the reports they're getting back, but decides on a wait and see approach.

Physically her back heals fastest and her hand the slowest. The flaying of her finger hadn't been careful or gentle and a number of tendons had been damaged. They wouldn't clear her for fieldwork until she passed her firearms test which given her inability to grip properly would take awhile.

Gideon and Hotch both watch her with the rest of the team carefully when Emily started travelling with them again.

They're both impressed and relieved by how competently she runs back end in St Louis. Hotch pulls him aside two days in.

"She was hiding a lot of skills from us…" he mutters.

"Yes she was" Gideon agrees "but now she's not and I think every single one of us are better for it."

Emily never tells the rest of the team about the letter Gideon left for her. It wasn't long and to anyone else it was unimportant but to Emily it meant everything.

'_To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.' - Ralph Waldo Emerson _

After Erin Strauss leaves his office in a huff Hotch and Dave chat for a while and Hotch feels relief uncoiling the knot that has been in his gut for weeks.

"Before I introduce you to the team you need to read this case file." It would take mere seconds for Dave to pick up on the tensions within the team. Not just those that Gideon's leaving caused but those still left over from Emily's abduction.

With raised eyebrows Dave opens the folder and quickly reads through the brief on top, he knows who wrote it without having to see the author.

The syntax and style is classic Jason Gideon.

When he gets to the end he quickly calculates the dates.

"9 months on and she's been cleared by both psych and medical… that's fast"

"The CIA trains its operatives well." Hotch comments with a hard stare at Dave.

Dave nods slowly and without having to be asked he knows exactly what Hotch needs him to do.

* * *

Dave held the main door to the Dallas police station open with a smirk as he and Emily made their way out to the Tahoe.

Once the engine (and the air conditioning) was running he looked at the simmering brunette.

"Who's being punished, you or me?" he asked.

"You're being punished for your stunt with the media, your punishment is me… apparently I'm being difficult." she snorted.

She'd passed her fit test, she'd passed her psych test and finally passed her firearms requalifications and yet everyone was still keeping her in the penalty box.

"Hotch keeping you on a pretty tight leash?" Dave had read the Doyle file and knew Hotch wasn't the problem right now. The rest of the team was, he just wanted to know if Emily realised it.

"No actually…" Emily mused "It's everyone else… Morgan keeps leaving me behind, Reid is walking on eggshells and JJ keeps giving me the easy stuff… Garcia can barely look at me without tearing up." She paused and went back through her last few cases "That's why he's pairing us up isn't it?" Emily's eyes widened in realisation "The others aren't going to let up until they're forced to… you'll let me actually do my job."

"I was a little surprised to see you bouncing back so well" Dave admitted "So is Aaron, I'm guessing he's going to ask me how I think you're really doing… if you're blowing smoke up psych's ass or if you're genuinely coping ok."

Emily likes his style… he's been honest with her so far and despite his lone wolf attitude and general pain in the assness she decides to give him some honesty back. More honesty than she's been willing to give psych at this point. They were shit at picking up the subtleties of the half truths she'd been telling, half truths David Rossi and Jason Gideon could spot a mile away blindfolded and drunk.

"A little bit of both… Out here on the road I'm fine. This job hasn't changed and that part of me hasn't either. Profiling is safe and comfortable… it's when I'm alone in my condo that it gets hard and I get why they're so jittery." Emily rubbed the still new and sensitive skin of her left ring finger "but I don't think they realise they're making it worse for me. I can't control my nightmares or that I'm still sleeping with a light on and music playing and I can't control the pain that randomly shoots through my left hand. I can't control their fears and issues with the work I did for Interpol and the CIA. This I can control, I have control over getting up every day, I chose to do it instead of hiding. I can control my personal hygiene… I chose to shower, brush my hair and do my makeup. I chose to come to work and what I have for lunch. I chose to drink too much coffee and that new pair of shoes I bought two days ago… I didn't need them but I wanted them so I chose to buy them. They see me as a victim of a crime… but I'm more than that. I'm a survivor and they need to start looking at me like one because to be perfectly blunt those 3 days Doyle had me were no where close to the worst of my life."

"Hmmmm" Dave is non-commital as he navigates them through traffic and contemplates her words. "It's different… seeing someone come out of what you did as well as you have. None of us quite know how to deal with someone who seems to be recovering relatively well. In my experience people who bounce back as fast as you are are either psychopaths or on a very steep path to eating their own revolver." he lets his words hang for her to consider, after several minutes of heavy silence Emily finally speaks again.

"I used to have really nice nails…" Dave blinks at the completely random piece of information but remains silent as he's sure she has a point to get to.

"... Then in 98 I was captured and one of the things they did was rip every single nail out and I haven't been able to grow them since…"

He flickers his eyes to the side and takes in the way she's studying her hands.

"A part of me misses having nice nails… but the larger part looks at them to be reminded that I'm strong and I'm a survivor… and survivor's don't put a bullet in their own brain and survivors don't take the darkness out on others. Survivor's live and fight another day because they want to stop anyone else from having to know what it's like to be a survivor."

* * *

It's nearing midnight when Hotch sends everyone to the hotel to get some sleep. Still mulling Dave's words in the back of her mind Emily decides to have a quick drink in the hotel bar before heading to her room to get some sleep.

Catching a reflection in the glass Emily smirks at her boss "I'm not diving into the bottle... I promise."

"I know" Hotch slides into the seat in front of her "We'd already be seeing the signs if you were."

"I didn't last time either" her eyes met his "but there's a damn good reason I bullied the hospital into taking me off narcotics."

Hotch's breath caught as her words suddenly made sense of her actions over the last 6 months.

"Clyde told you about 98, but not the fall out, 8 years later and he's still trying to protect me." she huffed out a dark chuckle "They put me on vicodin for the chronic pain in my feet from the nerve damage. Took nearly two years for it to start really affecting my work, by that time I'd worked my way up to Fentanyl. May 2000 I nearly blew my cover for a hit." Emily stared into her beer for a few moments before pushing on "He dragged me out of St Petersburg and up to my Grandfather's cabin in France. We'd used it as a bolt hole before so he knew it was safe and isolated. I detoxed but the pain was still there, without the pills I could barely walk. Clyde managed to get me into a clinical trial, it took a long time but by the time they we're putting JTF-12 together in early 02 I was clean, fit and healthy. Getting clean gave me a chance to face what had happened in Algeria, I didn't want the CIA life anymore but I didn't have the clout to get myself out. So I waited and when the Doyle investigation came up I knew that it was my chance. If I could break Valhalla..." she trailed off hoping Hotch would get it.

"You'd be able to jump agencies…" Hotch murmured.

"Yeah" a small smile graced Emily's face "best decision I ever made."

"Is this what Easter was hiding from us?"

"Yeah, he's an arsehole but he's a protective arsehole."

Hotch nodded "I'll need contact details for your Doctor and your pain management strategy?" he needed to know just in case.

"For the nerve damage?" Emily stared at her scarred hand "Botox injections every 10 weeks… for all the new stuff I was on NSAID's for a while… right now, Ibuprofen as needed" she shrugged carelessly. The first few weeks while her skin healed over and grew back were absolute hell. Now the tendons in her hand had healed there was no day to day pain to handle.

Hotch studied her, this new information giving him a much better picture of the woman who had been foisted off on his team.

"You want me to pee in a cup for you once a month?" Emily smirked not caring if he demanded it either way, she wouldn't have told him if she wasn't willing to face the repercussions.

His eyes didn't leave her face as he weighed his options. Given her admission to a drug dependency he was well within his rights to demand it of her. With no written record or proof of it he would be hard pressed to explain to HR why he was regularly testing a subordinate.

"No…" he finally decided "On two conditions. The first is you allow me to tell Dave what you just told me." Emily nodded her consent, not surprised "The second is a promise" Hotch continued "I need you to promise to come to either Dave or myself if you're having a bad day."

Emily regards him for a few long moments. It was easy to see why Dave and not any of the others.

Dave wasn't there… unlike Hotch and Garcia he didn't have to watch the video of Emily being tortured. He didn't have to listen to hours of interview footage of Ian Doyle who they found with her blood caking his hands.

Dave was coming in at the epilogue.

"Is this why the hotel has been mysteriously short on rooms since I came back and JJ and I always end up sharing?" Emily had cottoned on to the media liaison on her second case back, she just wasn't sure on Hotch's complicitness.

Hotch blinked in genuine surprise "Huh, I just though JJ got sick of Morgan bitching about Reid's insomnia and put the two of you together to keep them separate."

Emily snorted at the image of Reid pacing back and forth in the dark, furiously muttering and gesticulating... talking himself through anything and everything his giant brain could come up with while Morgan tossed and turned in frustration in the background.

"I'll make sure we take turns at sharing… Dave and Morgan, Reid and I and you and JJ…" he promised.

"Thanks Hotch…" a genuine smile graced her face "For everything."

**END**

**AN:** I was thinking today that I've left this really open. This story has been written completely from other people's perspectives and yes I did that on purpose. To stave off the question of will I do a companion piece from Emily's perspective I'll state here and now that it is a maybe. Right this moment I don't plan to but I never know where muse is going to take me next.

As always, thanks for the reviews.


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